I Prevail's Eric Vanlerberghe Confesses Surprising Condition for His Stage Fright

Stage fright can be quite concerning for a singer, but according to I Prevail singer Eric Vanlerberghe, his previous bouts with it have not come from playing to their biggest audiences. In fact, as he tells Full Metal Jackie, it's quite the opposite.

The vocalist admits his biggest issues came early on when he was playing to small local audiences and it's primarily when I Prevail started drawing larger crowds that he felt more comfortable in the live setting.

"Looking back at my local bands, we would get up onstage in front of the other local bands that were playing. There'd be 15 people there, 20 people there and I could not speak to save my life. We would just go song to song to song just 'cause I had such stage fright," confesses the singer. "But when we started touring, we were getting able to play in front of three, four, five hundred people, then to a thousand people. It was like, 'Oh, this is easier.' I don't have to look at five people and know that they each have an identity and a consciousness and they're each judging me right now."

Vanlerberghe recently had another brush with stage fright, but not during a show. It actually came while giving a best man speech at bandmate Dylan Bowman's wedding. He shared, "I just had to stare at my phone with the note with the speech on it and I had markers in there to be like, 'Look up. Finish two lines, look up. So I need to finish that line. At least look up, make eye contact with someone. Look back down. Focus, focus, focus."

Luckily its large crowds these days for I Prevail and the singer talks with Full Metal Jackie about making the adjustment within the band to adding melodic vocals to his vocal duties, what it's been like to see the fan response and how fans are warming to their Violent Nature album.

In addition, he speaks about some of the live adjustments made as he's become the group's primary vocalist after the exit of co-vocalist Brian Burkheiser and he speaks about walking the fine line of incorporating musical influence.

Check out more of the chat below.

It's Full Metal Jackie and I'm very happy to bring you Eric Vanlerberghe of the band I Prevail on the show with us this week. They've got a new album Violent Nature. Eric,  I feel like calling it a banger is almost an understatement, given how in your face this song is. I know you like to shake things up a bit. Why was "Violent Nature" the perfect song to sort of kick off this new cycle for the band?

Well, we've done this in the past before, so I'm surprised people haven't really caught on. But the first single we usually release is something that still feels like I Prevail but leans either energetic or heavy or it just pushes the boundaries in that direction of what we've done in the past.

So with this single, we were like, "All right. There's obviously a lot of things have changed in the band and there's some eyes on us and people are gonna be curious what our next move is. Let's shock the system. Let's put something out that I don't think many people are preparing for."

I Prevail, "Violent Nature"

Eric, obviously it's been a big change over the past year with Brian [Burkheiser] stepping away from the band. You've admirably stepped up, not only with the rough but the clean vocals for this next era of the group. It can't be easy. There's a brotherhood built up and a dynamic established for the fans. What were the discussions had when this move was coming and when did it become evident that you taking on clean vocals with Dylan [Bowman] stepping up vocally as well was the right step forward?

In the past, we've had to do similar [things]. We've had to perform as this lineup in the past with either Brian having an injury or not being able to make a tour. Those weren't really even thought out or figured out until shortly before the tours happened.

The first time it happened was a week or so into our longest tour ever. It was something like 40-some shows or something in 50 days. We just had to just learn on the fly and had to figure it out.

Dylan is a great vocalist. He had some challenges like picking up some of the melodic stuff, some of the chorus stuff while playing. But he sings and plays guitar, but there's two different pathways when you start doing riffing and singing on top of it. So, there's parts that I just had to pick up because it was just gonna be a little too much for Dylan to do last minute.

Over the years, kind of having that experience where we just got thrown in trial by fire. so when, when we knew the split was happening, we started working on our new music and talking about the future, writing and the future of touring.

A lot of the older stuff was like, "Okay, well, that's simple. We'll just go back to how we were performing it without Brian." But for the new stuff, we were demoing some stuff and we're just like, "Well, you've been singing a lot lately at practice and so let's write a couple songs with you in mind of singing big choruses."

READ MORE: How I Prevail's Eric Vanlerberghe Learned to Do Clean Vocals

So, going through the process of writing the songs how we do, I'll give it to the guys. It was very important that I had them in my circle. But to go up to that vocal booth in our little warehouse where we write, to go up there and just go, "All right. We came with a melody. I like it. Got a couple of just [faux] lyrics just to kind of see if the melody sounds good over this music. All right. Then get in there." And to be able to go in there with confidence that if I'm flat or I stumble or something, I'm not gonna have the guys back there snickering or laughing. It's just all 100 percent like, "Yeah, you got this. Let's figure it out."

After the first couple takes, the first couple demos, it started really forming that "You know, I think we're gonna be just fine." And credit to the rest of the guys in the band for standing by me and backing me up and helping me, because singing, the most of it is just being confident, just getting the mic and just being confident that muscle memory is gonna correct and you just gotta sing it. To have this group of guys behind me, pushing me, rooting for me, cheering me on, it's been critical. I'm so super grateful to be surrounded by awesome, awesome people.

Eric, obviously, you crushed it with "Violent Nature," but the song with a lot riding on it here is "Into Hell," which really shows off your clean singing in a more prominent way. What has been your reaction to seeing how the fans have embraced that song? Did you know that was gonna be the first clean singing song served up?

No, we didn't. It's been awesome. It's really been awesome seeing the comments. It's funny seeing some of the comments on 'Violent Nature' were like, "Oh, this is the new direction of the band. We already know where this is going." And we already know what we're doing. We know what was coming up next. We knew what we had in our back pocket.

Just to see all these, whether they're fairweather fans or devoted fans that have been with us since the beginning, that are all up in arms, like, "Oh, no, what's gonna happen?" Just give us some time, you'll see. We don't know how it's gonna go over, but we're gonna give you the melodic stuff.

And to see after it released  all these positive comments from our fans, just knowing that we've been dealing with some stuff. We've been going through it. And to see the love from our fans has been incredible. It's honestly been so incredible.

We didn't necessarily think this was gonna be the one. We had a couple songs written, demoed out and shown to the label and they were very adamant. They were like, "This is the next single." And like, "Really? you guys really think so?" The confidence they had behind it just built more confidence for us to be like, "Yeah, we're super stoked and super proud of this song." If our team feels the same way, let's pull the trigger. Let's do it.

I Prevail, "Into Hell"

Eric, it's one thing to step up vocally in the studio amidst your bandmates, but another to figure it out onstage. But you've jumped right back into the fire with it at your festival appearances earlier this spring. Not to mention you had some chances to work things out when Brin missed time last year. How has it been making that adjustment in the live setting and does it force you to reevaluate your presentation to the crowd?

That's a good question. Over the last few years, we've really started to dive in and talk more about not so much the aesthetic, but our stage design and how do we wanna take up the space onstage. You can be that band, like we were for a long time, that just went up there, ripped the songs and had a good time.

But playing on these bigger stages, especially these amphitheater stages, you learn that you can't just count on the crowd to go, "Okay, give me a circle pit this whole song," when it's an amphitheater and there's a hill and there's seats and there's not much of a pit. So it starts opening your brain of how do we make sure that our show's 100 percent entertaining, it's a rollercoaster? Through the ups and downs, you're still having a good time.

We've talked about that for the last couple years and now, with the lineup we have and the shows we're playing now, we're using these thoughts and these ideas and actually going for it full-send.

I think with the challenge of the new lineup is having this thing to focus on these showpieces, the big risers, the pyro, I think it all happened at a good time to learn. Okay now I wanna use this full stage. There's these risers behind me, the pyro's going off, what's gonna look good?

So I'm still learning and still working just as much as the rest of the guys onstage. But it's being creative in a different way and that's fun for me. I find joy and pleasure in finding a challenge to how do we one-up the last show? How do we keep doing it? It's been a challenge, but a very, very fun one to take head-on.

Eric, obviously as we've heard through the music, you've got a broad range of sound. How crucial has it been to not only be a fan of heavy music, but also of other genres when it comes to creating music? Is there anything that feels off-limits in terms of influence when it comes to creating an I Prevail song?

I think it's very important to be a fan, but also I'm going to shows even on days off on tour. When I'm home, if there's friends coming through, I'm going to the show. It doesn't matter what type of music. I just love music. If it makes you feel a certain way, if, if it can move you, then who cares what genre it is? If it's a good melody and has a good beat and a good feel, whatever you're trying to feel, whatever you're trying to chase, that song speaks to you, then hell yeah.

Things I would try to avoid is when we're getting into the nitty-gritty of we have these group of songs and getting to the finish line. Anything that reminds me of it in our space, in our world and that of our peers, I try to avoid listening to anything that's familiar.

Every piece of art is inspired by what you grew up on, right? What you've taken in and how you applied your filter to it and wrote your piece of art. So I try to be conscious of what I'm intaking near the end, at the high pinnacle of the the creative process, because I don't want to just regurgitate someone else's idea subconsciously.

But I do find personally that influences, and especially like movies, like scores or even horror movies or thriller movies, the feeling you're getting is the feeling I wanna chase with the music. So to be inspired by all different forms of art is, it sounds so high society or snobby or something, but to be able to find inspiration in more than just music, I think is important. Otherwise, if you're just listening to the same things and you go to create, you're probably gonna write something very derivative. You're probably gonna create something that really isn't what you're trying to say. It just feels good because you've felt that before.

It's tough to walk that line of taking inspiration in and running it through your filter. But what I find that's important is that you're chasing the mood. You're chasing the emotion specifically.

Eric, I was reading where you had a bit of stage fright. Not in front of the thousands strong at a festival, but rather when it came to giving your best man speech at Dylan's wedding. What happened there? And are there any experiences in the music world that have brought you some rattled nerves?

Oh, totally. Looking back at my local bands, we would get up onstage in front of the other local bands that were playing. There'd be 15 people there, 20 people there and I could not speak to save my life. We would just go song to song to song just 'cause I had such stage fright.

But when we started touring, we were getting able to play in front of three, four, five hundred people, then to a thousand people. It was like, "Oh, this is easier." I don't have to look at five people and know that they each have an identity and a consciousness. And they're each judging me right now. But we play a festival with 30,000 people, I can just look out and be like, "Yo, I just see a sea of people. I don't see individuals, right?"

Dylan's wedding, I just had to stare at my phone with the note with the speech on it and I had markers in there to be like, "Look up. Finish two lines, look up."

That's funny.

So I need to finish that line. At least look up, make eye contact with someone. Look back down. Focus, focus, focus. All right. Look up. People know that you're looking at 'em. Look back down. Focus, focus, focus.

You guys took part in a great package tour over the summer, the Summer of Loud trek with Parkway Drive, Killswitch [Engage] and Beartooth. It feels like metalcore is having its moment. Talk about some of these touring festivals that have popped up in these last few years.

I feel like as a fan I didn't get to go to the Mayhem and the Ozzfests growing up. But all these touring festivals kind of either died out or turned into just a handful of dates over the whole country. There was the lull in metal and rock and now that it's picking back up and we're not just this outcasted weird genre, metal and rock and hardcore. All that stuff's, It's cool again.

Thanks to I Prevail's Eric Vanlerberghe for the interview. The Violent Nature album is available now. Stay up to date with I Prevail through their website, Facebook, X and Instagram accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show here.